Major and Minor Arcana

Minnie was pacing. I guess if you needed a barometer to measure the level of tension in the place, the usually calm Minnie was an indicator of the level of restlessness in the house. Diantha was, on the other hand, calm, playing jacks on the floor of the living room, seeming unperturbed. Renee and I were washing dishes. Never mind we had a state of the art dish washer which could do everything including launch a man into space. We had to do something to keep our hands busy. Otherwise we would be bouncing off the walls. 

Aolani was playing a card game with tarot cards. Jessica was frowning at her hand. “Tell me again Aolani what makes a book and what makes a turn,” she said.

“A book is the minor arcana, in the same suit in numerical order in sets of three. The royal cards are Aces, Kings, Queens, Knights and pages and the turns are major arcana and they are just in numerical order,” she said.

“Ah, okay,” she said, frowning at her hand. Barrister came and stood behind her and looked at her cards and pointed out the most valuable cards and indicated the throw away cards. The game was a marriage of poker and rummy. She looked up at him. “Thanks sweety.”

“Anytime,” he said. The door banged open and we all turned. It was Alcide and Len. We slumped down.

“Wow, talk about a warm reception,” said Alcide, sitting down at the table.

“I would not sit down there if I was you Alcide, Aolani could get a full house and kill someone at the table,” I said.

“Really?” asked Jessica.

“No, not really, at least not the part about the full house. I think you have to have a baby straight,” she said. Smart assed witches, what more could you expect. The door opened again and in stepped Pam. 

“Damn it,” she swore. She was staring at her phone.

“What’s up Pam? Any word from Eric and Bill?” asked Aolani.

“No,” she said. “What can I do to get that fucking fairy princess away from me?”

“Uh, take Tara off her hands, or whatever is left of her,” I said.

“Shit,” she said. Pam flopped uncharacteristically down on the couch. She stared at the ceiling.

“I don’t understand why she turned Tara into a Vampire anyhow,” said Alcide.

“As unimpressed as I am with Sookie, I don’t understand why you are so mad at her,” I said. “You abjured Debbie Pelt and pissed her off anyhow and she went gunning for Sookie. She was just lucky enough to get the gun and shoot her. Debbie is the reason Lafayette made the decision, bad as it was, to have Pam turn her.” Alcide growled at me and Barrister stood behind me, his hands on my shoulder.  Diantha snickered and bounced her jacks ball in the air and swept up all her jacks.

“Pam, are you gonna save Tara?” asked Minnie.

“Fuck Tara,” she said, her voice was leaden.

“But…Eric would not approve of that,” said Minnie. “You know he wouldn’t.”

“Don’t you dare speak to me of what my maker would and would not do,” she said.

“And you be nice or you go home,” I said. “Vampires are a bunch of prima donnas in my book.”

“Who cares what’s in your book,” she muttered.

“That’s it, out you go til you can be nice,” I said. I pointed at her and muttered a repelling spell and Pam got up and barged out of the house. I locked the door and set the silver bolt and sat down. “Come on, we can still have a meeting.”

Aolani and Jess put their cards down and Minnie and Renee and Alcide and Barrister and Len and Diantha and I began our meeting.

“Bill and Eric will be home in Louisiana this Sunday,” I said. “So we need to get all the info we can on these sanguinistas.”

“Is Steve Newlin a sanguinista?” asked Len.

“Maybe, we think so,” I said. “And we have to consider Lilith.”

“Do you think she is alive?” asked Jessica.

“I don’t know. I mean, they used her blood to turn Dracula Vampire. Maybe they have a way of resurrecting her or maybe she isn’t definitely dead, maybe she has never died and they are…I don’t know, just taking care of her. Maybe she is feeble somehow,” said Aolani. “Who is Roman really, how old is he?”

“Well, he is pretty old. Maybe the same age of Godric, give or take a decade. Not as old as Russell Edgington,” said Barrister.

“When do you think he will be well enough to rise?” asked Renee. “Do you think it will be soon?” There was a pounding at the door seconds after Len got a text on his phone.

“It’s Pam, and I quote, ‘I will be fucking nice’,” he said.

“Go let her in Alcide,” I said. He got up and went and threw the silver bolt and slid the door back. Pam came in and sat down. “Pam, how long before Russell can rise?”

“No one knows. I know of only one Vampire starved and bound for that long and it took him a while. But he was a young Vampire, not quite five, so it took more out of him,” said Pam.

“So sooner rather than later for Russell?” asked Renee.

“Yes,” she said.

“So, we knew about Lorena and Bill and their bad habits,” I said. “And we see one of the versions of your being made.”

“Well, don’t believe everything you see,” she said. “But Eric did tell me about the responsibilities of a maker and how he felt about being a maker. As you can see, Eric takes the position very seriously and has little time for a maker who doesn’t.”

“And that is why Eric is such a great maker,” said Barrister.

“Bill tries,” said Jessica, taking up for her maker.

“He does, Jess,” I said. “I have to admit, he tries really hard.”

“So what can we do for Terry and Arlene?” asked Alcide.

“Not a whole hell of a lot,” said Len. “We don’t even know the story here, so we are best just observing.”

“Can’t be good,” said Minnie. “Arlene is not very supportive.”

“In a way, I get it, but in a way, she needs to understand a little better,” I said.

“But she has progeny, so she has to think of it first,” said Pam. Pam generally could give a shit less about humans and their reproduction and off spring, so this statement was tad odd coming from her.

“That does make a difference,” I said. “Jessica, did you enjoy your chase?”

“Saw that huh?” she asked.

“Yeah, you need to be careful running after stuff you don’t know much about,” said Aolani. “You never know what you are chasing. It could be a fluffy bunny or it could be a dragon.”

“I see what you mean,” said Jessica. “And then Jason was all sad.”

“It’s not Sookie’s bruge you should be worried about,” said Pam.

“How do you mean, Pam,” she asked.

“Let’s just say you are leaving a trail of broken hearts in your wake, one of them is courting death, literally,” said Pam.

“Hoyt?” she said. Pam nodded once and Jessica shook her head.

“That’s so fucking stupid,” said Jessica. “Call me the next time you see him.”

“I’ll add that to my to do list,” she snapped.

“So are you going to take charge of Tara?” asked Minnie.

“I will do whatever I can to help her,” said Pam.

“I guess that is the best we can ask,” said Renee. “Is there anything we can do to get ready for Eric and Bill to come home, if they come home next Sunday?”

“Just be here for them and try to help them think their way through. Len, is there some way we can do something about those bands they have put on them?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Len. “I will call some people about it. Maybe there is a way to corrupt the signal by hacking the app.”

“Well, we will have to figure out a way to test it, and I agree with the tech geek, the boys are too cute to be goo,” I said.

“I’ll see what we can do,” he promised.

“Now, this thing with Lafayette, he needs serious help,” said Renee.

“Yeah,” I said. “Aolani?”

“Well, it may that once he was possessed by Jesus family familiar, it stayed with him when Jesus died. I would say Lafayette may need to reach out either to Jesus or reach out to Jesus grandfather,” said Aolani.

“Lafayette may not care for that,” said Minnie.

“He may not have any choice,” said Aolani.

“That’s all we know Pam, so tell us, who would free Russell Edgington, only the four of you knew where Russell was buried,” I said.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Well, you better be thinking that question over, because you are going to be quizzed about that very thing, real soon,” said Barrister.